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1 Corinthians 7:21
“Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.)”
In forbidding covetousness in the tenth commandment (Ex. 20:17), God does not forbid all desires or tell us that it is inherently wrong to seek a change in our circumstances. Scripture encourages us to have good desires. One way it does this is by affirming that the Lord will give us the desires of our hearts when we delight ourselves in Him (Ps. 37:4). If just any desire for change or to possess something we do not yet have were wrong, the Bible could hardly commend any desires. Scripture forbids only desires that constitute coveting, desires for things that do not rightly belong to us, which often manifest themselves in our envy of the success of others.
To fulfill all of Scripture’s teaching on our desires and to put covetousness to death in our hearts, we must have a good understanding of the relationship between contentment and our desires. After all, the solution to covetousness is to be content, to be able to rest in God’s providence and not to be inordinately disturbed by our circumstances. Contentment is the opposite of covetousness because covetousness results from our setting our hearts on things that do not belong to us, but contentment results from our setting our hearts on what we should prize most of all—namely, Christ and His glory (2 Cor. 12:1–10).
Contentment is not the absence of all desire for change but the state of being satisfied in God even when our good desires are not met. Today’s passage helps us understand this. In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul is addressing Christians who thought that their commitment to Christ demanded a radical reshaping of all social relationships. His broad point in the chapter is that believers should be content to remain in the circumstances they were in when Christ called them to faith, as long as those circumstances are avenues in which one can serve Him. In verse 21, he addresses Christian slaves specifically, noting that it is perfectly fine to secure their freedom if they are able to do so even as they are not to worry inordinately about their status as slaves. To seek freedom is to desire change, so it is not wrong to seek change when that change is not contrary to God’s law, and personal liberty is in keeping with God’s law. From this, we understand that not every desire to improve our situation is covetousness. Only when such desires control us and make it impossible to be satisfied in the present do we run into problems. Contentment and desire for change can go hand in hand.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
If all desires to improve our circumstances were wrong, we could never seek to improve our lot or the situation of others. We would end up fatalists who think it worthless to do anything but resign ourselves to the current moment. But Scripture never calls us to do that. Contentment is not fatalism; rather, it is the choice to rest in God’s providence even if our good desires are not fulfilled in the way we want.
For Further Study
- Proverbs 12:25
- Malachi 2:1–5
- Philippians 4:10–13
- Hebrews 13:5